1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to refrigerators and, more particularly, to a refrigerator which is designed such that an air cooling chamber and a machine room are provided on the upper portion of a cabinet, thus enlarging a storage space of the refrigerator.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is well known to those skilled in the art, a refrigerator is an appliance which is operated such that cool air generated from an evaporator is supplied to a storage compartment, thus maintaining the freshness of various food items for a lengthy period of time. Recently, as consumers have an increased preference for large-capacity storage compartments, there is a growing tendency for the size of refrigerators to be increased. For example, there has been proposed a side-by-side refrigerator, which is provided on its left side with a freezer compartment and on its right side with a refrigerator compartment so as to allow a large quantity of foods to be preserved for a lengthy period of time.
The side-by-side refrigerator is designed such that its storage compartment is partitioned by a partition wall so as to define the freezer compartment and the refrigerator compartment at both sides in the interior of the refrigerator""s cabinet. A freezer door is mounted to the front of the freezer compartment to open or close the freezer compartment, and a storage door is mounted to the front of the refrigerator compartment to open or close the refrigerator compartment. The freezer compartment, refrigerator compartment and the two doors are provided with a plurality of shelves and drawers so as to easily store foods in the refrigerator. An evaporator, a cool air circulating fan and a cool air duct defining a cool air passage are interiorly installed on each of the rear walls of the freezer compartment and refrigerator compartment to supply cool air into an associated compartment. A plurality of cool air outlet ports and cool air inlet ports are provided on the front surface of the cool air duct. A machine room is provided at a rear portion in the lower portion of the cabinet, and receives a condenser, a compressor, a cooling fan, etc.
However, such a conventional large-capacity refrigerator has a problem that the evaporator to generate cool air and the cool air circulating fan to circulate cool air are installed at each of the rear positions inside the freezer compartment and the refrigerator compartment, and the machine room receiving the compressor and the condenser is arranged at the rear portion in the lower portion of the cabinet, so the interior capacities of the freezer compartment and the refrigerator compartment are reduced.
Further, since the large-capacity refrigerator is tall, it is inconvenient to a short user while storing or taking food out of the upper portion of the refrigerator, so the short user prefers using the lower portion to using the upper portion of the refrigerator. But, in the conventional refrigerator, the space of the lower portion of the storage compartment is small, because the machine room is arranged at the rear portion in the lower portion of the cabinet and occupies a substantial part of the lower portion.
Accordingly, it is an aspect of the present invention to provide a refrigerator, capable of maximizing the interior capacity of a storage compartment by changing the positions of an air cooling chamber and a machine room, thereby the refrigerator being substantially easier to use.
Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a refrigerator which enhances the cool air circulating efficiency of the storage compartment.
Additional aspects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.
The foregoing and/or other aspects of the present invention are achieved by providing a refrigerator, including a cabinet provided with a storage compartment, a projecting part upwardly projected from a predetermined position on the upper portion of the cabinet to define an air cooling chamber, the air cooling chamber being defined in an upward direction from the upper portion of the storage compartment, an evaporator and a cool air circulating fan installed in the air cooling chamber defined in the projecting part, and a machine room provided on the upper portion of the cabinet at a position opposed to the projecting part, and including a compressor and a condenser installed.
According to an aspect of the present invention, the projecting part is provided at a rear position on the upper portion of the cabinet such that the air cooling chamber is longitudinally and horizontally arranged at a rear position above the storage compartment, and the machine room is provided in front of the projecting part.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the air cooling chamber is provided with a partition wall to partition the air cooling chamber into a front part and a rear part, the partition wall is spaced at its upper end apart from the top surface of the air cooling chamber, the evaporator and cool air circulating fan are installed in the rear part of the air cooling chamber, the cool air circulating fan is installed at a position above the evaporator so as to blow cool air, generated by the evaporator through a heat-exchanging process, into the front part of the air cooling chamber, and the cool air circulating fan comprises a cross flow fan which is longitudinally arranged along the air cooling chamber.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention, the refrigerator also includes a sucked air guide member spaced apart from the rear surface of the storage compartment in such a way that the upper end of the sucked air guide member is connected to the lower end of the partition wall, the sucked air guide member defining a guide passage to guide air of the storage compartment into the rear part of the air cooling chamber, with a plurality of sucking ports provided on the sucked air guide member, and a discharged air guide member spaced apart from the upper surface of the storage compartment in such a way that the rear end of the discharged air guide member is connected to the lower end of the partition wall, the discharged air guide member distributing cool air discharged through the front part of the air cooling chamber, with a plurality of discharging ports provided on the discharged air guide member.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, the machine room includes a casing comprising a cover member mounted to the upper portion of the cabinet for covering a top and both sides of the machine room, and a shutting member rotatably mounted to the cover member selectively opening or closing the front of the cover member.